kal_el_07241

@Kingy Cheaper still than Scarlet & Violet. Over $100 for base game not including DLC. This at least is one version.

@Sonicka Yes when posted online and in the eShop, the description was for Hyperspace Lumiose.

@Grumblevolcano Agreed, Grumble. It's been a great ride though. Very appreciative of what we've gotten thus far. Onwards to Switch 2 development.

@Sonicka Literally in the DLC description when it was first announced months ago.

@Bats1234 Agreed - seems a little unfair especially when discussing this game.

Fans: Do something new!
TPC: Here's Arceus
Fans: it's meh, why is there speed in battles now? I don't want to throw pokeballs
TPC: Here's SV - it's a watered down version of Arceus.
Fans: Do something new!
TPC: Here's ZA. RT battles now and a fleshed out map with plenty of POI's
Fans: the windows look stupid! Give us Arceus instead we loved that game!
TPC: Here's DLC expanding upon ZA unlike the 0 support we gave Arceus. This includes a Rogue Like mode similar to DK Bananza but also has a lot of story tied to it unlike Banaza.
Fans: Stop charging us for cut content! You will never evolve Pokemon!

I'm enjoying the crap out of this game because it's genuinely the most fun I have had playing a Pokemon game ever, even clearing my favorite game, Arceus. At the end of the day, we should be playing games because they are fun to us. That's literally all that matters.

@Jeronan If it didn't have the Rogue Like element, more story and DLC for a game well deserving of more content unlike what happened with Arceus, I would agree with you.

I, on the other hand, am so incredibly excited for this and the fact it even exists in the first place.

@PerfectFrost No one spreading misinformation will ever take responsibility. It's what they only exist to do.

@OmnitronVariant Online ranked will continue to evolve. Level of entry to get the stones is very nice for casuals who want to collect everything.

@Jeronan According to data leaks ZA was delayed by an entire year. This DLC was finished sometime this year and planned to release within Q4 '25/Q1 '26

@CupidStunt You should really play this game as that can't be further from the truth.

Ranked is now extremely easy for anyone wanting Greninja and Delphox Mega Evolution stones. They eliminated being able to lose points after a match. Only need to rank up a few times which can take as little as two matches.

@GgGames More than likely timelines. As time as passed, it became so much more obvious that ZA was delayed until the Switch 2 released. Most estimates put this around a year delay. The DLC was more than likely planned for development once the game wrapped up. With the game coming out a year later, TPC did not want to delay the DLC by that amount as they didn't want to cause issues with their Gen10 release schedule for next year.

@AussieMcBucket Yes and Yes.

@AussieMcBucket They probably need to considering how poorly it's selling.

@abbyhitter It's just going to be Lumiose City again. Just in an alternate dimension. The description for the DLC is on the eShop.

Edit: I'm hoping it's a very different Lumiose City. One set way back in time (Arceus style) or way in the future.

@EarthboundBenjy Light on content? I'm at 70 hours and haven't even beat the game yet. By the time I finish all the side missions I will have put more time into this than Arceus (still combing through the solitude battles) and SV.

@Ironcore Yes Nintendo is pushing out the DLC sooner than expected due to lackluster sales. We should expect Gen10 and Gen11 news to hit no later than Christmas this year.

With everything surrounding the tariff debacle in the US, this launch has been nothing short of an amazing result. People in general are spending less and yet the Switch 2 is selling like hot cakes.

Also - the fact that this console continues to sell so well and I can find stock of the Switch 2 at pretty much every store is something I have never seen before.

Kudos where credit is due - keep it going Nintendo!

@Crockin What's your reasoning behind this? DK has always been 10th fiddle sales wise for Nintendo (sadly). These numbers are actually higher than I expected. I'm excited for the future of the DK franchise. Hopefully more people pick this game up as it's easily a game of the year contender.

That said, in my very subjective opinion, I'm having somehow even more fun with ZA.

Can we get Pokemon ZA music please?! New games should always have their music launch day and date on the Music app at time of game release.

This is fantastic news as a fan of gaming in general. Patenting game mechanics should never be allowed.

What in the absolute ****?!??! It's like we're getting an entirely new game for free!! Hahaha I can't stop laughing... this is incredible!!

From Ruby and Sapphire on the series has been incredibly stale... collect more pokemon, defeat bad guys, yada yada yada

Sword and Shield started to mix things up with wild areas.

Arceus gave us completely new mechanics for the game and changed up the turn based combat a bit while giving us bigger wild areas to explore freely.

SV gave us our first true open world experience but lacked the charm, progress and polish that Arceus gave us earlier that year which felt like a very lackluster entry.

ZA doubled down on everything in Arceus and has given us the most whimsical entry to date trumping all other Pokemon mainline games but still a little behind presentation wise to New Pokemon Snap and voice acting/charm wise to Detective Pikachu Returns.

ZA is undoubtedly my favorite entry in the series since Gold and Silver. I haven't had this much fun in a Pokemon game in a long long time. As long as the next mainline game takes everything the Legends games have now established and continue to double down on them while implementing other mechanics getting us closer to living the Anime (voice acting, presentation/graphics polish, real time evolutions and trading), we should be eating very well going forward.

@The_Nintendo_Pedant Stated time and again by TPC, the Legends games are main line games and part of canon.

I mean yeah of course they're not pleased...

That said... in just a few more years, there won't be any "staff" at EA.

@Dr_Lugae It's like saying, this is the worst selling Pokemon game that isn't a Next Gen game or Remake since Detective Pikachu Returns. That game sold 10 copies. I'm the one who bought all 10 copies btw.

Considering first reports for week 1, ZA was down 40% compared to Arceus, and then by week two only 28%... seems like this game is going to have some strong legs heading into the holiday season whereas Arceus did not have that. Time will tell though.

37 hours in and still only at Rank E.

@AverageGamer not to mention Joe Merrick has pointed out how heavily that game is being sourced out to other companies for various assets, designs and mechanics of the game. GameFreak is virtually just a publisher in that case.

Pokemon has either completely disrupted the space-time continuum or people just love repeating the gospel of grifters everywhere now about this franchise.

Legends ZA, by anyone who has played it and loves Pokemon, finds it to be an objectively good game. If you want to offer up some realistic constructive criticisms, then please do that. Calling fans idiots or pigs eating from a "trough" is so far off base it's insulting to us as a civilized society.

The Legends games explicitly exists because of fan backlash/critiques/desires. Yet, there are people ripping on it for clearly not healing their black hearts like so many other games are known for apparently. This game isn't on the level of SV, it is superior in damn near every way to Arceus. Hopefully one day you will be able to enjoy something and be passionate about without unnecessary hatred thrown your way. Because we all deserve happiness and joy. That is ultimately what this franchise has always been about.

Now if you'll excuse me, my Totodile and I have a few hundred thousand battles to win.

@Cheez Certain games go hard stylistically for cut scenes. If I'm being fair, why would a Pokemon game go hard for cut scenes if even the Anime doesn't? Digimon has always gone harder than Pokemon. That's kind of its schtick.

@Dee123 Are we sure though?? I mean, what quality games has Nintendo put out lately?

MKW, Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, Pikmin, Odyssey, TotK, BotW, SM Wonder, Animal Crossing, Xenoblade, Bayonetta, Fire Emblem, SSB Ultimate, Paper Mario, Princess Peach, and Luigi's Mansion all don't count.

@JagGentlemann Take Spiderman 2 for example...

@Elektrogeist1287 If only GameFreak listened to their fans and made the Legends series which has become synonymous with changing up the formula.

But alas, we live in an alternate timeline where the Legends game don't exist... stupid Mandela effect.

Welp it's official guys... TPC will be pulling the plug on the Legends series games due to this bomb of a launch.

We can now all expect SV quality games from here on out! Good job everyone!

JK... This game is definitely going to have much longer legs than Arceus did due to the upcoming Holiday season and the DLC launching next year.

Seriously, NintendoLife can't keep up today:
-Fallout 4 coming
-System Shock remake coming
-Star Wars Outlaws Demo drops today
-Warhammer Rogue Trader (article posted at least)

Guys... is this what it's like to have a platform fully supported now?? No Directs required??

Assumed three packs would launch for the beginning of the 2nd year. Looks good! Just needs more Dragonite...

Also, would love a slower rollout going forward to new packs every 2 months.

Would love a Ghost port from PlayStation though... both games.

On a side note, Bananza should be selling so many more copies than that!!!

At over 200k Switch 2 sales for the week, would this be the second biggest sales week for the Switch 2 in Japan since launch?

ZA is going to have legs and I am so happy for it!!

More sloppy joes on the way!

@OmnitronVariant Scarlet and Violet did a lot of damage to how we view GameFreak. There are swaths of people avoiding this game because of how bad SV was. This game was clearly made by the same team that made Arceus though. So much attention to detail (if you avoid looking at the exteriors of buildings).

What's so odd about the graphical criticism alone is that... everything else in this game looks fantastic!! Have you seen the water?! Why does it look that good?! Interiors of the buildings are fantastic and the environments overall are still better than Arceus.

The main thing about this game that should have secured a great score from most critics is that this entire map has no wasted space. As a gaming community we have been complaining about this for years with open world games. While Arceus has a bigger map, ZA does so much more with the space they are given. And that city that doesn't feel so full of life at the beginning? It evolves over the course of the story.

I have been clamoring for a Pokemon game like this for decades. It's not even close to perfect and still needs a few things to make this "my" ideal Pokemon game. But holy **** am I having so much fun with this. I feel like a kid who's just picked up Red and Blue for the first time. The closer this series gets to feeling like you're playing the Anime in real time, the happier I get.

@Dr_Lugae I wouldn't say they hate it but... they don't love it. Which I find incredibly odd considering how much I loved watching Alex' coverage of Arceus. This game literally doubles down on everything Arceus threw at us. I packed over 150 hours into Arceus and still play the game.

Already at 30 hours in ZA and I firmly expect I will be playing this game until something comes along that is better. The bar has been set.

Still easily the best Pokemon game ever made.

Also, lifeless is a pretty harsh stretch. There are several people that are constantly walking and running around the city with their Pokemon. Some people stand still doing other actions like stretching or sitting at cafe's. A majority of people are standing still, but calling it lifeless feels a little hyperbolish.

Apparently we're so far removed from games like Skyrim. Every game now is so full of life in their environments haha

Other than enemies in Bananza, all the NPC's are just standing around as well. But apparently that gets a pass.

@Elbitryq I'm surprised you're surprised. The Switch 2's fidelity should be on par, if not superior, to the PS4 Pro and Series S.

@HammerGalladeBro I can agree with that sentiment. Took me until this summer to finally attain a shiny Meowth. Definitely savored that moment.

@Kalcheus Completely different playing styles I suppose. I'm only at Rank F (just having so much fun with the game) and already have about 500 battles.

@MTMike87 Wow that is unbelievably lucky... going to have to work on attaining my lucky charm sooner than later haha.

@breach187 One of the main reasons I love this game so much. Less fluff for battles and catches. Can battle multiple Pokemon at the exact same time and trainer battles you can go from one to the next in a much more streamlined approach. All of the constant clicking/reading between moves was so monotonous. It's all gone now.

@MTMike87 This is the main reason I don't use exploits for shiny's. It loses all the fun and randomness of actually finding one. It's also why I would much rather prefer opening TCG packs to just going online and buying the card I want.

On a side note, my wife was going through her boxes last night and found out she had a shiny pidgey. She then asked me if there are any indicators in the game for shiny Pokemon being on screen. I have not had any shiny encounter yet and I'm over 20 hours in. Needless to say... I was very happy for my wife and yet... incredibly annoyed. Haha

@DollyrotsFan1 Agreed!! I want more of this especially what it seems like we're going to be getting story wise... luckily I have three more months at least to progress/have fun in the game before the DLC drops.